Dear Democracy Now! visitor,

You turn to Democracy Now! for ad-free news you can trust. Maybe you come for our daily headlines. Maybe you come for in-depth stories that expose corporate and government abuses of power. Democracy Now! brings you crucial reporting like our coverage from the front lines of the standoff at Standing Rock or news about the movements fighting for peace, racial and economic justice, immigrant rights and LGBTQ equality. We produce our daily news hour at a fraction of the budget of a commercial news operation—all without ads, government funding or corporate sponsorship. How is this possible? Only with your support. If every visitor to this site in December gave just $10 we could cover our basic operating costs for 2017. Pretty exciting, right? So, if you've been waiting to make your contribution to Democracy Now!, today is your day. It takes just a couple of minutes to make sure that Democracy Now! is there for you and everybody else in 2017.

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Arlington West: Veterans For Peace Member in California Pays Homage to Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Stephen Sherrill of Santa Barbara, California, discusses his Arlington West Memorial where he has planted over 2,700 crosses — one for each dead U.S. soldier in Iraq. [includes rush transcript]

The number of U.S military deaths from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now surpasses the number of those killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. This latest milestone came on Friday when the Pentagon reported the death of an unidentified solider killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. This brought the death toll of U.S soilders killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to 2,974. The attacks of 9/11 killed 2,973. Yesterday, as part of our 80-city Breaking the Sound Barrier tour, we stopped by a Santa Barbara pier in California where veterans had planted thousands of crosses–one for each dead US soldier. They call it Arlington West.

Stephen Sherrill, founder of the Arlington West Memorial and member of Veterans for Peace

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMYGOODMAN: Last evening, as we drove to Santa Barbara, we pulled up to the pier. There, we saw thousands of crosses dug into the beach. We talked to the man who started this, what is called Arlington West. His name is Stephen Sherrill, and he is with Veterans for Peace.

STEPHENSHERRILL: It started November 2 of 2003 with about 340 crosses. It was designed for two purposes: one, a memorial, to recognize the kids that have lost their lives over in Iraq; and also a wakeup call for Americans to show them the terrible price that we have paid for this war in Iraq.

AMYGOODMAN: Talk about the numbers here.

STEPHENSHERRILL: Today we just hit 2,700 crosses. The average number of soldiers dying has been about 14 per week, about two per day. The last four weeks we’ve been above our average. We had 16 this week, we had 23 the week before, and 23 the week before that.

AMYGOODMAN: And how are people responding to this display?

STEPHENSHERRILL: Well, we’ve been here almost three years now, and we have noticed a clear shift in the sentiment of the visitors that come here. In the beginning we used to get a lot of people that would shout at us and call us communists and terrorist sympathizers. But we have definitely noticed a shift in the sentiment of the American people. We get almost no derogatory comments now at all.

AMYGOODMAN: Stephen Sherrill, he is with Veterans for Peace, and he is the founder of Arlington West at the Santa Barbara pier. We spoke to him last night in Santa Barbara.

Non-commercial news needs your support

independent global news

Democracy Now! is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Please do your part today.